Thank-yous, farewells and forthcoming welcomes to the people who keep the organization going.
Unique Westerners inspire HCN
Posted inFebruary 2026: The Recording Artists
Letters to the Editor, February 2026
Comments from readers.
Posted inArticles
See the West’s rich geologic past
An illustrated timescale of Earth focuses on the region’s landscapes, flora and fauna.
Posted inArticles
Ancient energy sources power the future
The AI Age perpetuates fossil fuel burning.
Posted inArticles
An EPA proposal would make it harder for tribes to protect their water
The agency’s plan would narrow water quality reviews and eliminate one of the few ways that tribes can their enforce treaty rights.
Posted inArticles
Would you pay 1% more for wildlife?
A bill in the Oregon Legislature would tax tourists for conservation.
Posted inJanuary 2026: Deep Time in the West
How to find deep time in Seattle
A geologist connects Earth’s history to the amazing stones that clad the city’s buildings.
Posted inJanuary 2026: Deep Time in the West
The Grand Canyon and Meteor Crater have a surprising link
Mysterious driftwood high in Grand Canyon caves hints at the legacy of Arizona’s huge impact crater.
Posted inJanuary 2026: Deep Time in the West
Three books explore deep time and help us look forward
The future has already happened.
Posted inArticles
‘Train Dreams’ is an ode to the lonely labor of forestry
In the new film adaptation of Denis Johnson’s novella, I saw my own Forest Service career reflected back at me.
Posted inJanuary 2026: Deep Time in the West
‘My history is a blip’
#iamthewest: Giving voice to the people that make up communities in the region.
Posted inArticles
Lawmakers call for an investigation into Interior’s Karen Budd-Falen
House Democrats are demanding an ethics probe into the high-ranking Interior appointee over her financial ties to the massive Thacker Pass lithium mine.
Posted inArticles
The nation’s trails are disappearing
Government-issued maps offer a promise for safely exploring our public lands, but they no longer reflect the reality of what’s actually on the ground.
Posted inArticles
Alaska’s public lands are a political battleground
The first year of the second Trump administration saw a bewildering array of federal actions in the 49th state. Here’s your guide to where things now stand.
Posted inJanuary 2026: Deep Time in the West
How pronghorn outran the ice age
Can they outrun an uncertain climate future?
Posted inArticles
Congress passes environmental funding without Trump’s deep cuts
But the bipartisan effort still trimmed climate research and fails to solve agencies’ chronic underfunding.
Posted inJanuary 2026: Deep Time in the West
How geology not only shapes the world, it shapes us
A geologist’s daughter reflects on deep time and her father’s influence.
Posted inArticles
6 takeaways from our public-lands grazing investigation
Subsidies prop up ranching, grazing degrades the land and politics underpin the system.
Posted inJanuary 2026: Deep Time in the West
“Legend-dairy” mountain peaks, visiting bears and remembering a blubbery blowout
Mishaps and mayhem from around the region.
Posted inArticles
Digging out in the Palisades Fire burn zone
Portraits of the workers shoring up a broken world.